RBI released the Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2024-25

In December 2025, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the “Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2024-25”, under the Section 36(2) of the Banking Regulation Act (BRA), 1949.

•  The report explains the performance of the banking sector during 2024-25 and the first half of the 2025-26 period.

Consolidated Balance Sheet of SCBs increases by 11.2% in FY25

Banking System Structure: At end of Financial Year 2024-25 (FY25), India’s commercial banking sector consisted of 12 Public Sector Banks (PSBs), 21 Private Sector Banks (PVBs), 44 foreign banks (FBs), 11 Small Finance Banks (SFBs), six payments banks (PBs), 43 Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), and two Local Area Banks(LABs).

Consolidated BS: The consolidated balance sheet of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) (excluding RRBs) increased by 11.2% during FY25 as compared with 15.5% during FY24.

• The capital to risk weighted assets ratio of SCBs was 17.4 per cent at end-March 2025 and 17.2 per cent at end-September 2025.
• SCBs remained robust with the return on assets (RoA) at 1.4 per cent and return on equity (RoE) at 13.5 per cent in 2024-25. During H1: 2025-26, RoA and RoE of the SCBs stood at 1.3 per cent and 12.5 per cent, respectively

Asset and Liability: On the assets side, bank credit and investments increased by 11.5% and 9.2%, respectively, in FY25.

• On the liabilities side, deposits increased by 11.1% in FY25.

Share of Banks: The share of PSBs in the consolidated balance sheet of SCBs declined to 54.9% at end-March 2025 from 55.2% the previous year.

• The share of PVBs also moderated marginally to 37.1% from 37.5% over the same period.

Bank fraud amount rises 30% to Rs 21,515 crore in April-September 2026

Fraud Rises: During the first half of Financial Year 2025–26 (FY26) (April–September), the number of reported bank fraud cases declined to 5,092.

• However, despite the reduction in incidents, the total amount involved in these frauds increased by 30% to Rs 21,515 crore (Cr).

FY25: Similarly, during FY25 the total number of frauds decreased to 23,879, while the amount involved in frauds increased to Rs 34,771 Cr.

Fraud Category: During FY25, the share of card / internet frauds in the total stood at 66.8% in terms of number of cases and the share of advances-related frauds was 33.1% in terms of amount.

Bank-wise fraud: In FY25, Private sector banks (PVB) accounted for 59.3% of the total number of reported fraud cases, while Public Sector Banks (PSB) constituted 70.7% of the total amount involved.

Note: The report covers fraud cases of amount Rs 1 lakh and above.

Number of urban co-operative banks (UCB) shrinks by 15 to 1,457 during FY25

UCB decreases: The consolidation drive in the UCB continued in FY25, with the total number of UCBs declining by 15 during the year, bringing the count down to 1,457 as at end-March 2025.

• Out of the 1457 UCBs, 1406 are non-scheduled and remaining 49 are Scheduled.

Deposit and Credit: Deposit growth of UCBs improved to 5.2% during FY25 from 4.1% a year ago.

• Credit growth of UCBs also accelerated to 6.7%, highest in six years,

with improvement across both the scheduled and the non-scheduled       UCBs.

Financial Performance: The consolidated balance sheet of UCBs

grew by 4.4% during FY25.

• The net profit of UCBs rose by 14.2% in FY25, aided by lower provisioning due to improved asset quality.

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR): As per the revised regulatory framework effective from April 1, 2023, a minimum CAR of 9% for Tier 1 UCBs and 12% for Tier 2 to 4 UCBs are to be maintained.

• At end-March 2025, 92.1% of the UCBs maintained CAR above 12%.

Credit extended by Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) increases to 14.6% of GDP 

Asset Expansion: On the asset side, loans and advances expanded by 19.4% at end-March 2025, with upper-layer NBFCs recording higher growth than NBFC-Middle Layer (ML).

Sectoral Credit: As of end-March 2025, Industry and retail dominated NBFC credit with an 81.1% share, followed by services at 15.4%.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): The share of NBFC credit in GDP continued to increase, reaching 14.6% in FY25 compared with 13.5% a year earlier.

Payments banks’ deposits jumped 57% to Rs 25,605 crore in FY25

Balance sheet growth: During FY25, the combined balance sheet size of PBs grew by 43.7% to Rs 37,592 Cr. 

• The PBs deposits grew by 56.8% to Rs 25,605 Cr and investments rose by 64.3% to Rs 24,037 Cr.

Net Profit: Though the net profit remained positive, it declined marginally by 2.2% to Rs 92 Cr in FY25.

SFBs’ asset quality worsens Y-o-Y, CD ratio improves in 2024-25

Balance sheet growth: The balance sheet of SFB grew by 20.9% to Rs 4,05,463 Cr in FY25

Credit-Deposit (CD) ratio: With deposit growth outpacing credit expansion, the CD ratio of SFBs moderated to 86.4% at end-March 2025 from 90.1% a year earlier.

Net Profit: The net profit of SFBs declined to Rs 3,496 Cr due to sharp increase in expenditure on provisions and contingencies.

Asset Quality: The Asset quality also recorded a decline, with an increase in Gross Non Performing Asset (GNPA) ratio to 3.6% at end-March 2025.

CAR: The SFBs remain well capitalised with the CAR at 21.5% and

Tier 1 capital at 18.8% at end-March 2025.

ATM numbers decline in FY25 as digital payments rise

Decline in ATM: During FY25, the total number of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) declined moderately to 2,51,057, driven by a reduction in off-site ATMs, even as the number of on-site ATMs increased.

• Increase in digitalisation of payments has reduced the customers’ requirement of transacting with ATMs.

ATM Share: PSBs accounted for the highest share in the total number of ATMs, followed by PVBs, and white label ATMs at end-March 2025.

Multi-decadal low GNPA

Gross non-performing assets (GNPA) ratio declining to a multi-decadal low of 2.2 per cent at end-March 2025 and 2.1 per cent at end-September 2025.